ROUNDABOUT BLOG

Harvey

We are thrilled to announce a special benefit performance following the smash hit limited engagement of Harveyon August 5 at 7:00 PM.

Tickets for the benefit performance are on sale now. Each ticket purchased will support Education@Roundabout which brings over 3,500 NYC public school students to matinees each season.

For tickets to the benefit performance on Sunday, August 5 at 7pm, please call (212)719-1300 or go online at www.roundabouttheatre.org. Ticket prices range from $72-250. The contribution made with every ticket purchase funds the cost for a NYC public school student to attend to a student matinee next season. A portion of the ticket will be a tax-deductible contribution.

About Education@Roundabout:
Every year, we spend over $1.6 million dollars in comprehensive education programs that impact over 6,500 New York City public school students and educators. Education@Roundabout targets underserved communities with programs ranging from in-school residencies, to after school programming, to educator workshops, to one of the most competitive career development programs in New York City’s theatre community.

Though Harvey was written over sixty years ago, it speaks to us just as strongly now as it did then. Since it premiered, two Broadway productions, a classic film, and three television productions have guaranteed Harvey’s place in the theatrical canon and collective consciousness.

Harvey first opened on Broadway at the 48th Street Theatre in 1944 to great commercial and artistic success. Directed by Antoinette Perry (of Tony Award fame), the original production starred Frank Fay as Elwood and Josephine Hull as Veta, and ran for over four years. Mary Chase won that year’s Pulitzer Prize for Drama. A successful production followed on London’s West End at the Price of Wales Theatre in 1949.... Read More →

Before rehearsals began, Education Dramaturg Ted Sod sat down with Director Scott Ellis to discuss his thoughts on Harvey.

Ted Sod: How did the idea of doing Harveywith Jim Parsons come about?

Scott Ellis: The production was my idea. It was a play that had been sent to me to look at and I was taken by it. I think I’m drawn to anything that has not been done often. I just thought it was a lovely story and I realized a lot of people didn’t know it. When we were thinking about casting and who we could cast as Elwood, Jim Parsons’s name came up and we went out to Los Angeles and did a reading with him. I thought he was wonderful and brought the qualities I was looking for in that role. That’s how it all came together.